| Complaint: | Complaint 21-111 |
|---|---|
| Respondent: | Monica Brown |
| Premises: | Fetch a Vet |
This one is truly surreal. Wowzers!
The complainants, Erin McManis and Chad Schatz, fostered a beagle from Arizona Beagle Rescue; they relate that this beagle was massively huge, on the order of 100 pounds, and tell us the beagle was taken from his person at Beatitudes, a senior living facility, by the Arizona Humane Society for being fat. We also learn that the beagle is no longer in their custody; the beagle is now out looking for a forever home and they're fostering another obese beagle (more on all this below). They cite medical records stating that the beagle was in very bad shape both in terms of morbid obesity and related side-effects including torn ligaments, infections, and an inability to even stand up; they do confess that at best this is a 45-pound beagle and note that he's never going to be a 25-pound beagle. They say that Brown recorded the increase in his massive obesity and failed to do anything about it; they say that this is obvious animal cruelty.
They say that Brown had a legal and moral duty to report this neglect, noting that she works in an area with a lot of old people who are (in their opinion) well-known to be far more likely to have morbidly obese pets. They're worried there could be other fat pets out there suffering because Brown won't turn them into the authorities. They also cite Brown's web page stating that she believes in taking care of God's creatures and that God blessed her with a sixth sense for helping animals; McManis and Schatz say that it's acceptable if Brown wants to believe in God but that she's taking advantage of old people by saying that she has a God-given sixth sense to help pets. They say that veterinary medicine is a science and unscientific statements cannot be verified (science be praised!). They want Brown to be reprimanded and have her files audited to make sure there aren't more morbidly obese pets that she's neglected.
Brown says that the dog's former person was an old woman who lived on the fifth floor of the senior living facility. She says that the pet was happy and bouncing around but did in fact begin to put on weight; Brown notes this in her records and says that she kept trying to warn the person that the dog was putting on weight. She even recommended a mobile exercise service that could come by and help the dog but says the person was always very worried about costs (likely because she was old, retired, and in a senior living facility?). She notes that she received a call from Arizona Humane Society Emergency Animal Medical Technician™ and investigator Julie Bolchalk (disturbingly she's referred to as an "Officer" despite having no such legal authority). Bolchalk said that someone phoned in a complaint regarding the morbidly obese dog but that the Arizona Humane Society didn't consider it animal cruelty. Brown did a consult with veterinarian Jason Eberhardt (himself a Midwestern University bigwig and respondent in at least one complaint) with no success. We're told that at some point another Arizona Humane Society person, Mark Smith, took the beagle away from the person; the person apparently called Brown crying and pleading for her dog to come home but Brown had no information to pass along. She called the Arizona Humane Society who said that Smith took the dog to a rescue (was this Arizona Beagle Rescue?). She asked for the name of the rescue and was told they didn't know and couldn't find out for her. She also says that once upon a time she did report animal abuse when a dog was kicked in the head and bleeding from the ears but nobody did anything about it.
The Investigative Committee said that they understood where the complainants were coming from but that even the Arizona Humane Society does not define morbid obesity as abuse. They also note that Brown was trying to help educate the owner about obesity.
A quick Google search of McManis and Schatz comes up with results from all over the place, including some puff pieces on sites from AZCentral to the New York Post and People. They're Internet-famous for fat-farming a different morbidly obese beagle, Wolfgang, and raising awareness about fat pets.
Arizona Humane Society Emergency Animal Cruelty Investigator™ Mark Smith also has his own side hobbies, one of which appears to include kids, at least according to the police. Formerly one of the stars of Animal Planet's reality TV show "Animal Cops Phoenix," he appears to have also featured in Operation Broken Hearts, an underage sex sting where real, actual, factual cops arrested him and charged him with aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation and attempted sexual conduct with a minor. The IMDB page for Smith provides more detail:
In February 2021, Emergency Animal Medical Technician Mark Smith was arrested and indicted during the multi-agency Operation Broken Hearts sting, created to combat sexual predators in the greater Phoenix area. Smith was charged with 1 count aggravated luring a minor for sexual exploitation, and 1 count attempted sexual conduct with a minor. Arizona Humane Society, the organization featured on Animal Cops, promptly fired Smith after the arrest.
Smith's guest-starring role as alleged pedo is even more hilarious because of a Fox 10 Phoenix story about local animal cops where he's featured alongside Phoenix PD animal cop Heather Krimm (link). Krimm, you may remember, allegedly helped harass and terrify a woman into euthanizing her terminally-ill dog in 18-05 in part because he wasn't dying fast enough. In the story, an emotional Krimm says that it's important to fight animal abuse because it leads to child abuse; in her words, "It starts with animals, goes on to children." She hopes by fighting animal abusers it will protect the children. (Who's going to protect our families from people like Smith and Krimm? The government? They are the government, or directly adjacent to it.)
Smith's case was handled in Maricopa County Superior Court (S-0700-CR-2022001737) where he made a plea for other charges in March 2023. Sentence was subsequently handled down by the Honorable Monica Garfinkel in May of that same year. Despite this minor bump in the road, his time at the Arizona Humane Society seems to have left a lasting impression in terms of entrepreneurship; it looks like he's now asking for other people's money on TikTok.
| Source: | September 9, 2021 AM Investigative Committee Meeting |
|---|---|
| People: | |
| Monica Brown | Respondent |
| Roll Call: | |
| Carolyn Ratajack | Aye |
| Christina Tran | Aye |
| Jarrod Butler | Aye |
| Robert Kritsberg | Aye |
| Steve Seiler | Aye |
| Result: | Passed |
| Source: | October 10, 2021 Board Meeting |
|---|---|
| People: | |
| Monica Brown | Respondent |
| Proposed By: | Nikki Frost |
| Seconded By: | Jane Soloman |
| Roll Call: | |
| Darren Wright | Recused |
| J Greg Byrne | Absent |
| Jane Soloman | Aye |
| Jessica Creager | Aye |
| Jim Loughead | Aye |
| Nikki Frost | Aye |
| Robyn Jaynes | Aye |
| Sarah Heinrich | Absent |
| Result: | Passed |
The primary source for the above summary was obtained as a public record from the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board. You are welcome to review the original records and board meeting minutes by clicking the relevant links. While we endeavor to provide an accurate summary of the complaint, response, investigative reports and board actions, we encourage you to review the primary sources and come to your own conclusions. In some cases we have also been able to reach out to individuals with knowledge of specific complaints, and where possible that information will be included here.